The Athenian Constitution   

that they executed their offices in accordance with the laws. Any
person who felt himself wronged might lay an information before the
Council of Areopagus, on declaring what law was broken by the wrong
done to him. But, as has been said before, loans were
secured upon the
persons of the debtors, and the land was in the hands of a few.

Part 5

Since such, then, was the organization of the constitution, and
the many were in slavery to the few, the people rose against
the upper
class. The strife was keen, and for a long time the two parties were
ranged in hostile camps against one another, till at last, by common
consent, they appointed Solon to be mediator and Archon, and
committed
the whole constitution to his hands. The immediate occasion of his
appointment was his poem, which begins with the words:

I behold, and within my heart deep sadness has claimed its place,
As I mark the oldest home of the ancient Ionian race
Slain by the sword.

In this poem he fights and disputes on behalf of each party in
turn against the other, and finally he advises them to come to terms
and put an end to the quarrel existing between them. By birth and
reputation Solon was one of the foremost men of the day, but
in wealth
and position he was of the middle class, as is generally agreed, and
is, indeed, established by his own evidence in these poems, where he
exhorts the wealthy not to be grasping.

But ye who have store of good, who are sated and overflow,
Restrain your swelling soul, and still it and keep it low:
Let the heart that is great within you he trained a lowlier way;
Ye shall not have all at your will, and we will not for ever obey.

Indeed, he constantly fastens the blame of the conflict on the
rich; and accordingly at the beginning of the poem he says that he
fears' the love of wealth and an overweening mind', evidently
meaning that it was through these that the quarrel arose.

Part 6

As soon as he was at the head of affairs, Solon liberated
the people
once and for all, by prohibiting all loans on the security of the
debtor's person: and in addition he made laws by which he cancelled
all debts, public and private. This measure is commonly called the
Seisachtheia [= removal of burdens], since thereby the people had
their loads removed from them. In connexion with it some persons try
to traduce the character of Solon. It so happened that, when he was
about to enact the Seisachtheia, he communicated his
intention to some
members of the upper class, whereupon, as the partisans of
the popular
party say, his friends stole a march on him; while those who wish to
attack his character maintain that he too had a share in the fraud
himself. For these persons borrowed money and bought up a
large amount
of land, and so when, a short time afterwards, all debts were
cancelled, they became wealthy; and this, they say, was the origin
of the families which were afterwards looked on as having
been wealthy